 First we have the dancer, Mirro Chah. Let's welcome her before the dance. Hello everyone, welcome to this wonderful day. My name is Margaret Costantino. I'm the director of the Center for Refugee Services, which is one of the sponsors for this beautiful event. This is our sixth year of helping with World Refugee Day. It's an opportunity for us to come together, not only refugee communities and immigrant communities, but also people who've lived in San Antonio for many, many years. So it requires all of us to help newcomers who come into our neighborhoods and who are looking for jobs, who are looking for friends, who are looking for understanding, and who are looking to contribute. This is why the Center for Refugee Services was started about four-and-a-half years ago by a group of community volunteers to welcome newcomers and to help them make that transition to their new lives in the United States. He talked about, he said yes, what he found here, the freedom. So he talked about the education here for his kids. It's better than there in Iraq. And also he said that there in Iraq, you know, education these days costs a lot of money. Yeah, because, you know, the public schools are not, these days are not very good there in Iraq. So for that reason there is what we call private schools. And private schools cost a lot of money. Many, many people can't afford to, you know, to spend this or to get the better education for their children, for their kids because it costs them a lot of money. So you've been going to school here? Yeah. What is the school that you go to? College North. Pardon me? College North. And you like it? Yeah. Good. Next year I'm going to hobby. Yeah. Yeah, for sixth grade. It's hard. The school year is hard. But if you, like, if you come, well, you're going to learn English a lot. Well, it really is a community. We will come and have conferences with their students at their apartments. We encourage families to come up to the school as often as possible. And we like to be involved outside of the classroom. I mean, it's a community effort. It's not just one person that can really help these students and their families. It takes the village, you know, to really help them. So coming out here is just another way that we can support them and their families. For the Northside Independent School District, it is the newcomer school. So all the new refugees will come to our school from pre-K to fifth grade. And then after that, then they'll go to more of their local schools. So they're actually bused in. This is a large population that lives within our school boundaries. Tell me about the different languages that you're facing in school. I know in my class there's at least six to nine different languages in the class. Just depending on, you know, the flow. Because our classes are constantly growing because refugees are constantly coming into the city. It's not something that's static. And so sometimes we will have more, many more countries are represented than just languages. Because we know that not just one country speaks Arabic. So it just varies, you know, from month to month, really. Welcome Yalana, who is going to dance next. I want to say something to Ms. Litor and Ms. Rust and Ms. Allen to thank them that they teach us a lot of English. We will be like in sixth grade and we will be ready to sixth grade. And even Ms. Allen, my brother's teachers, they help a lot with them. They help a lot to teach us a lot of English. And I thank them because they make us ready to sixth grade. We are blessed to be your teachers. We are. You had been working with? Yes, with the U.S. Army. So I worked for the U.S. Army for more than two years. And after releasing, you know, because the U.S. Army withdrew from Iraq. So they released us, me and my son, because we together worked for the U.S. Army. And then we worked for a security company. It is also an American one. It was called Torres. And we worked for that company also for one year. And then, you know, we came here. This is our last destination. And you're staying? Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. On behalf of Masjid Bilal Ibn Rabi, Muslim community here in San Antonio, we welcome the refugees and all those who support them. We are impressed and championed all of the efforts that are being done to recognize the imbalance and the injustice that has been done to people all over the world. We welcome, as part of San Antonio, this city as a haven and a place of healing for those who have been displaced, those who have been disconnected, especially the children who have come across the border from various lands and many of whom are in jail and in prison at this moment.